Gov's tax plan not a big hit with folks on the street

"He should raise just his own taxes. Just his," the Lowell resident said as she walked down Merrimack Street on Saturday.

In his State of the State address last week, Patrick unveiled a new tax plan that would increase the state income tax from 5.25 percent to 6.25 percent, while dropping the sales tax from 6.25 percent to 4.5 percent.

The extra $2.8 billion brought in from higher income taxes would go toward the governor's education initiatives, while future sales-tax revenue would be dedicated to a fund supporting transportation, school construction and other infrastructure.

Some Greater Lowell residents and visitors said they are adamantly against the proposal.

Among them is Teixeira. An educator herself, she said she'd like to see schools get more funding, but she doesn't think taxes are the way to solve the problem.

"I don't agree," she said. "We already pay so much, and he's making a lot of money."

For Karen Ponty of Carlisle, the issue isn't about higher taxes, but the timing of Patrick's announcement, coming on the heels of Congress allowing the expiration of a 2 percent payroll-tax cut earlier this month.

"This just seems like a lot," she said. "It's not necessarily a bad thing to raise taxes, but they're going up all over. We're getting hit all at once."

Arthur Sirmopoulos of Lowell said a sales-tax increase would be less of a bitter pill to swallow.

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"With income tax, they're just taking it out of my pocket," he said.

Sirmopoulos, who said he works 40 hours a week installing airbags in cars, said the income-tax hike would be too much of a burden.

"Business is slow," he said. "Nobody's buying cars."

And with less disposable income after a tax increase, people certainly aren't going to start buying cars, Sirmopoulos added.

One of those not about to purchase a car is Bob Sweet, a Boston resident who relies on public transportation, including the commuter-rail train he took to Lowell on Saturday.

"As bad as it sounds, I think there should be a tax on gasoline," Sweet said, waiting for his train home in the lobby of the Gallagher Intermodal Parking Garage. "People who use the roads would pay it."

Although Patrick wants to increase spending on transportation, Sweet thinks it's unlikely any new revenue would go to support rail or subway service because that would primarily benefit the metropolitan Boston area. Meanwhile, he said, roads and bridges statewide are in need of repair.

"I think, definitely, something has to be done," he said. "Right on the highway, you can see it, how the road conditions change when you get to a new state."

Waiting for the same train as Sweet, fellow Bostonian Brian Rivard said he supports Patrick's ideas, particularly his doubling of personal exemptions, which reduce the amount of income that can be taxed. Workers making less than $37,000 a year would see a tax cut of up to $200, while tax bills would rise for those making more.

"From what I've gathered, it's the way it should be," Rivard said. "Not going after the little guy."

Rivard said he made $15,000 last year.

"One percent from me, what's that going to do?" he said. "If I can't pay rent, can't buy food, how am I going to pay more taxes?"

At the other end of the spectrum, said Rivard, someone making $1 million annually would hardly notice a 1 percent increase.

Regardless of the structure of the new tax proposal, "enough is enough," Chelmsford resident Cheryl Sheehan said.

"I can understand what he's trying to do, but why would I want my taxes to go up?" she said as loaded groceries in her car outside the Chelmsford Market Basket. "My paycheck hasn't gone up in a long time, but it's the only thing. Everything's going up around us, prices and costs, but not my paycheck."

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